Assistant Director, Student Success Initiatives

Position Summary

The assistant director of Student Success Initiatives provides hands-on advising, coaching, and support to Rice undergraduate students. This position will work closely with those students indicating a need for additional guidance in making the transition to college or in achieving student-determined goals. Through the use of holistic, student-centered advising approaches, the assistant director will be expected to employ various proactive advising, innovative learning strategies, and coaching techniques to engage students, connect them with critical university resources, and facilitate their successful retention at the University.

Essential Functions

• Identifies and advises students needing additional support and provide sustained, individualized, developmentally appropriate coaching to assist in their academic, social, leadership, and interpersonal development
• Assists students in developing roadmaps for their success at the university, using varied strategies to facilitate the identification and implementation of their goals
• Assists in the monitoring of student academic performance and their persistence towards graduation, preparing reports, and maintaining student files as necessary
• Maintains an awareness of best practices in proactive advising, student success coaching, and the higher education/student affairs landscape, integrating these ideas into his/her advising practices
• Assists in developing student success interventions, workshops, and other programs aimed at facilitating the transition to college
• Develops trainings aimed at educating student leaders, faculty, and staff about the populations supported by the office and they ways in which they can support student transition
• Teaches a section of University 110, a first year student transition course
• Performs all other duties as assigned
• Occasional weekend and evening work is required.

Additional Functions / Information

• Communicates and collaborates with residential college Magisters, Wellbeing, academic departments, Campus Life entities, and other campus resources as necessary to insure students receive comprehensive support
• Provides support as needed to other initiatives in the Student Success Office, which could include, but are not limited to, New Families Orientation, Orientation Week (O-Week), office-wide marketing initiatives (social media, website) and programming support for First Generation and low-income students

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree
• 2 years of r elated professional experience in a four year college or university setting with some previous advising or coaching experience
• Knowledge of theories, including student development, learning and identity development and experience applying those frameworks professionally
• Able to problem-solving and support/advise students in personal and/or academic crisis
• Strong communication and rapport building skills and experience collaborating with faculty, staff, students, families and administration
• Ability to multi-task and manage multiple projects with competing deadlines
• Demonstrated understanding of the experiences of students in transition and the strategies necessary to facilitate their success
• Experience and comfort working with diverse student populations, including but not limited to first generation college students, low-income students, and underrepresented student populations
• Coaching and instructional skills, organizational abilities, attention to detail, and the ability to quickly assess the effectiveness of an intervention

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree (preferably in college student personnel, counseling, student affairs, or a related field)
• Experience employing holistic proactive/intrusive advising strategies
• Experience providing academic support, leadership development, and program development
• Experience supporting student success/undergraduate retention initiatives
• Experience working with faculty
• Experience working at a highly selective college or university
• Familiarity with working in a fast-paced, results-oriented environment
• Ability to work in a collaborative, team-oriented environment
• Ability to create interventions to support diverse learners

Salary

• $50,000-54,000

Rice University is an Equal Opportunity Employer with commitment to diversity at all levels, and considers for employment qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, genetic information, disability or protected veteran status.

Current Rice University COVID policies, which include vaccination, face mask, testing, gatherings, occupancy limits, and travel policies can be found here: https://coronavirus.rice.edu/policies